update from sparkleup
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<p>“And do you have a better sense of what caused this massive loss of life? What led to the one year, one month, and ten days of downtime?”</p>
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<p>Another pause, longer this time, before Günay spoke. “We aren’t sure, yet.”</p>
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<p>“I do not believe that,” Dry Grass said, smiling and bowing toward the stage. “And I mean that in all kindness, Günay. The phys-side news feeds are being slowly ungated, and the tone is not one of questions with no answers.”</p>
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<p>The tech wilted under the cold kindness. “Well, okay. There is some suspicion of malicious actors, yeah. I say ‘suspicion’ in earnestness, I promise. A lot of what you see — or will see, I guess — on those feeds is gonna be speculation, and I can promise that that’s all I’ve got, too.”</p>
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<p>The tech wilted under the cold kindness. “Well, okay. There is some suspicion of malicious actors, yeah. I say ‘suspicion’ in earnestness, I promise.” She winced as a wave of discomfort washed over her face. “A lot of what you see — or will see, I guess — on those feeds is gonna be speculation, and I can promise that that’s all I can— that’s all I’ve got, too.”</p>
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<p>Jakub, apparently unable to restrain himself any further, stepped back to the center of the stage and bowed curtly. “Dry Grass, if I may.”</p>
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<p>The Odist nodded, a touch of haughtiness in her movements.</p>
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<p>“We have been ensuring a certain amount of…information security and hygiene, at least until we were sure that Lagrange was back up and running at full capacity. It–”</p>
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<p>“It isn’t at full capacity,” Debarre growled.</p>
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<p>“If I may,” Jakub said, glossing over the comment and continuing all the same. “It was determined that, with the conclusions that the investigative teams dug into the root cause produced, certain data were to be withheld from sys-side and phys-side <em>both.</em>“</p>
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<p>“If I may,” Jakub said, glossing over the comment and continuing all the same. “It was determined that, with the conclusions produced by the investigative teams that dug into the root cause, certain data were to be protected by NDA and withheld from sys-side and phys-side <em>both.</em>“</p>
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<p>Jonas Fa smiled cloyingly. “I have to say, that doesn’t exactly leave much in the way of doubt in our minds as to what might’ve happened. You either fucked up royally or we were attacked.”</p>
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<p>Jakub stiffened, bowed, muttered, “Unavoidable.”</p>
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<p>One of the other Odists at our table snorted. “Treating information theory like a game gets you shit on every time.”</p>
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<p>“You hid them from us, you’re saying,” Selena said.</p>
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<p>“I…well, sure, we didn’t want them just laying around wherever.”</p>
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<p>Dry Grass raised a hand to cue Selena to remain quiet. “We ask because, without that visual signifier that anything had happened, we were left with the sudden, inexplicable absence of loved ones and friends, our up-tree and down-tree selves. We would have been left with our grief either way, yes? But without the core dumps, we did not have the hope that there might be something recoverable from them. We were left without hope at all.”</p>
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<p>When Dry Grass dropped her hand, Selena picked up once more. “This was the only communication we received from you for hours. You didn’t talk to us directly, didn’t tell us what happened, but you <em>did</em> hide those core dumps. That was an act of communication in itself, and that’s why we’re left with a sour taste in our mouths.”</p>
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<p>When Dry Grass dropped her hand, Selena picked up once more. “This was the only communication we received from you for hours. You didn’t talk to us directly, didn’t tell us what happened, but you <em>did</em> hide those core dumps. You <em>did</em> gate the feeds. You <em>did</em> turn off AVEC. These are acts of communication in themselves, and that’s why we’re left with a sour taste in our mouths.”</p>
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<p>As Günay wilted on the stage, Dry Grass shook her head. “Tensions remain high, my dear. We are not placing blame on you. Part of why we asked to speak to a systech rather than a manager or admin is because we would not be blaming anyone, just passing information back and forth. It is regrettable when it winds up with you in the middle, but for the most part, we just want to know what happened.”</p>
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<p>“Alright,” she said, still looking meek. “So what more can I tell you?”</p>
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<p>“There was no damage to the physical components of the System, correct?”</p>
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<p>Debarre sneered. “23 billion instances just crashed? Just like that?”</p>
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<p>“Uh, well, no,” Günay said. “All of you crashed.”</p>
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<p>The silence that filled the room sys-side was profound. It was so pure that I suspected that everyone within the room had suddenly set up cones of silence above themselves, and I had to check to make sure that I hadn’t done just that.</p>
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<p>“Wait, wait, wait. No, that can’t be it,” Debarre said. The growl was gone from his voice. He looked panicked, rather than angry. “That’s 2.3 trillion instances at best guess, right? Trillion, with a ‘T’, right? Everyone keeps saying that.”</p>
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<p>“Wait. Wait wait wait. No, that can’t be it,” Debarre said. The growl was gone from his voice. He looked panicked, rather than angry. “That’s 2.3 trillion instances at best guess, right? Trillion, with a ‘T’, right? Everyone keeps saying that.”</p>
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<p>Günay nodded. “2.301 trillion instances crashed. 100% of the System was affected.”</p>
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<p>There was no silence at this. The room burst into scattered conversations. Dry Grass nodded to Need An Answer, who waved a hand toward the AVEC stage, which was suddenly overlaid with a muted microphone symbol.</p>
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<p>“We all crashed?” Sedge asked an instance of Dry Grass who remained at the table. “All of us?”</p>
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<p>“Everyone who survived, perhaps,” Dry Grass said, shrugging. She looked tired, as though the exhaustion were catching up with her. “Did you notice anything leading up to midnight?”</p>
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<p>I thought for a moment, just pressing gently against the table. <em>I just wish it had some give,</em> I thought. <em>If it’s going to be floating in air, it should have some give.</em></p>
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<p>Aloud, I said, “I remember mentioning some <em>déjà vu,</em> and then Hanne mentioned similar.”</p>
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<p>“Come to think of it, I remember getting almost punched in the face with that, too,” Sedge said, frowning.</p>
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<p>“I remember getting almost punched in the face with that, too,” Sedge said, frowning. “That’s why we asked about it in the survey.”</p>
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<p>Dry Grass sat still, looking down at the table as though tallying up these experiences. “We did notice some of that in our experiments, yes; memories whose tails were left dangling trying their best to dovetail into the new ones being formed,” she said slowly. “But come, they are unmuting. We should be quiet. We should listen.”</p>
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<p>Sure enough, the mute symbol had begun to pulse, and a few seconds later, it disappeared and the small noises of rustling began to come through from phys-side once more.</p>
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<p>“Thank you for clarifying,” Dry Grass said, offering a hint of a bow to the gathered System techs and administrators. “We would like to ask if there has been a general memory modification that would have removed time leading up to midnight. Nearly everyone within the room has reported a sense of <em>déjà vu,</em> which is a common side effect of such.”</p>
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<p>“Oh! Y–” Günay began, but the feed was once more muted, this time with an angry swipe of the hand from Jakub.</p>
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<p>“Oh! Y– I…I can’t talk–” Günay began, but the feed was once more muted, this time with an angry swipe of the hand from Jakub.</p>
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<p>“I suppose that answers that,” Jonas Fa said, laughing from up at the front of the room. “They’re really terrible at this.”</p>
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<p>Need An Answer swiped up a keyboard and started typing rapidly. A few seconds later, a message appeared superimposed on the AVEC projection, reading: “Please unmute. Remember that we are communicating with Günay Sadık.”</p>
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<p>Another minute passed, and then the mute was lifted once more.</p>
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<p>“This is not an interrogation,” she replied calmly. “Though perhaps I ought to say that it need not be.”</p>
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<p>The administrator bowed once more, more stiffly this time, and backed toward the rest of the techs sitting in the background.</p>
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<p>“Apologies, my dear,” Dry Grass said, smiling to Günay. “Please do continue. I believe we were talking about a potential memory trim.”</p>
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<p>Her expression far more subdued, the systech nodded. “Yeah, we trimmed about fifteen minutes of memory from everyone we were able to recover.”</p>
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<p>Her expression far more subdued, the systech nodded. “Yeah, we trimmed about fifteen minutes of memory from everyone we were able to recover. I…was under an NDA.”</p>
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<p>“Why fifteen minutes?”</p>
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<p>“A guess, mostly. We tried trimming it closer and there were some effects of the…of the crash that stuck around in everyone’s memories.” She hesitated, adding, “It didn’t seem pleasant. Everyone affected was in agony, and they all quit within seconds, minutes at most.”</p>
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<p>Selena lifted a hand and, when Dry Grass nodded to her, said, “We seem to be talking around what <em>actually</em> happened. Jonas said we’re talking about either an attack or gross incompetence. I’d really love it if you’d tell us what actually happened.”</p>
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<p>Günay looked nervously back to the audience of administration and technicians behind her — many of whom I suspected outranked her — and stammered, “Uh…well, I mean…”</p>
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<p>“Günay, please,” Dry Grass said, her voice quiet, earnest.</p>
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<p>“Alright,” she said after a moment of silence, during which none of the administration moved to stop her. “What we think happened is that a broad-spectrum contraproprioceptive virus was released into the System environment, either destroying or inciting a crash in every instance it came into contact with. Since it propagated through the perisystem architecture, this was every instance on Lagrange.”</p>
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<p>“Alright,” she said after a moment of silence, during which none of the administration moved to stop her. She looked to Jakub, who swiped at his tablet and nodded. She continued, “What we think happened is that a broad-spectrum contraproprioceptive virus was released into the System environment, either destroying or inciting a crash in every instance it came into contact with. Since it propagated through the perisystem architecture, this was every instance on Lagrange.”</p>
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<p>Towards the end of her statement, she had to raise her voice to speak over the upwelling of murmurings and gasps that showed through sys-side. Holding myself separate from the whispered exclamations being shot around the table at which I was sitting, I watched as the representatives up near the AVEC stage scanned the audience.</p>
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<p>“‘Was released’ implies a deliberate action,” Selena said once the room had quieted enough. “Do you have any confirmation on that?”</p>
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<p>“Uh…” Günay clutched her tablet in her hands. “Even if I knew anything — and I’m not on that team, promise — I’m <em>really</em> not qualified to talk about this.”</p>
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<p>“Uh…” Günay clutched her tablet in her hands. “Even if I knew anything — and I’m not on that team, promise — I’m <em>really</em> not qualified to talk about this. Mr. Strzepek only just lifted the inhibitor.”</p>
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<p>Jonas Fa raised a hand to silence any further questions. “No, you’re right. Much as I hate to say, it’s probably not the best time to talk about this.”</p>
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<p>Angry muttering from around the room.</p>
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<p>“If it was a deliberate action, especially if phys-side played any role in it at all, then we’re talking about a breach of the Articles of Secession,” he continued, more to the sys-side room than to the AVEC stage. “We’d need set up a working group to get in touch with phys-side leadership as soon as we have more information. Thanks, Günay, you’re off the hook for this one. Mr. Strzepek, no need to send details, but please send me a side-channel message as to whether or not I should be setting up that WG. No–” He held up a hand as Jakub started to rise. “–I don’t need any details beyond a yes or no. Do it from your HUD right now.”</p>
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